Read Ken McCarthy’s ‘Internet Video Marketing Letter’ article titled “System video: How long is too long?”.


Ken McCarthy’s ‘Internet Video Marketing Letter’ article is reprinted here.

System video: How long is too long?

How long should an Internet video be?

Two answers:

1. If the content is compelling enough for a viewer and he or she is properly “prepped” for the experience and there is no other source for the same information, there’s practically no time limit.

2. On the other hand, without these conditions, after three minutes Internet video viewership falls off a cliff.

I’ve gotten four rock solid confirmations of this number, two from folks who track Internet video viewership closely and two from ‘alternate’ sources, one of whom says the real number may be closer to two minutes.

First, the two ‘normal’ sources previously feautured in the Letter:

1. Inmanstories.com, producers of turnhere.com

2. Rocketboom.com

It’s possible to track video and see exactly where viewers bail out and both these Internet video publishers do.

You’ll rarely see either of them exceeed the three minute limit and John McWeeny of “Stories” (Inman Stories) told me 3 minutes is the maximum for one of their programs.

My unexpected sources?

The British TV program “Coronation Street” which I believe is the world’s longest running TV serial.

I recently watched an episode with a stopwatch in hand. Not one scene was longer than three minutes. Not one. Few were longer than 2.5 minutes.

My second source: Antonio White, a true blue multimedia pioneer whose work preceeds the web – and even CD-ROMs.

In the mid 1990s long before video on the Internet was possible, Antonio created a hybrid system that involved distributing video CDs (and even floppy disks, that’s how far his work goes back) that pointed people to his clients’ web sites.

What did he discover?

If the video intro was longer than two minutes, the number of people who clicked through to the web site declined precipitously

Why three minutes – or two minutes according to Antonio? I’m sure the answer will be nailed down some day by neuroscientists, but in the meantime…

Rule of thumb: If you want the maximum number of people to watch your video all the way through to the end, three minutes is the absolute limit for how long your programshould be.

Now for the monkey wrench…

If you’re selling something, you don’t necessarily care about getting the maximum number of viewers to watch all the way through to the end.

What you want is the maximum number of viewers who DO something which is always less than 100% no matter how good your video (or sales letter) is.

By tailoring your sales video to three minutes or less, you may be maximizing the percentage of people who hang in to the end, but failing to convey all the info needed to trigger the actions you want.

One solution:

If you need more than two or three minutes to tell your story, create it in at least two parts.

Part One for the people in a hurry and Part Two for viewers who have the time and motivation to dig in.

More on this soon. It’s a big topic.

Enjoy!

Ken

Subscribe to the System Internet Video Marketing Newsletter by going here: http://www.InternetVideoMarketingLetter.com

Ken McCarthy

Ken McCarthy organized and sponsored the first conference ever held on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web. His company Amacord Inc., formerly E-Media, was one of the first Internet-based businesses in the world.

In addition to working with small and mid-sized business clients since 1993, McCarthy was a consultant to NEC’s Biglobe, the largest online service in Japan, from 1996 to 2001. His book The Internet Business Manual was the first book on web entrepreneurship published in that country. He is also credited by Hotwired magazine with being one of the people responsible for the development and popularization of the banner ad, one of the key underpinnings of commercial Internet publishing.

A graduate of Princeton University, McCarthy came to the Internet industry with a varied background which included technical consulting for two of New York’s top investment banks, lecturing on educational psychology at MIT, Columbia, and NYU, and founding and operating a number of small businesses, including one that helped produce an Academy Award winning documentary. Ken McCarthy is associated with the following blogs: Ken McCarthy’s Blog, System Video Blog

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Ken McCarthy for granting permission to reprint the newsletter articles.

 

 

 

 

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